iDo Love Her
by JadedAttitude143
Summary: Sam and Freddie's thoughts in iOAR. Oneshot. Why does Freddie suddenly have a crush on Carly? How do Sam and Carly feel about this? Rated K plus. Please read and review!


**Author's Note: Well, I know a lot of us Seddie fans are upset about iOwn A Restaurant. I don't blame you guys, and I thought I'd write a oneshot to kinda fill in the gaps of the episode. I'm not super upset, but I am confused. I think this is just one of those episodes that we'll only be able to appreciate at a later date. Here it is, I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own iCarly. If I did, I don't really think iOwn A Restaurant would have happened the way it did. **

He is not sure why he says it. The words were tumbling out quietly, reminiscent of sillier, youth-filled days, and there was nothing he could do to stop them. Freddie has not been able to control anything for the longest time.

"Is it too late for you to love me?"

Carly pauses and frowns and he flushes and hangs his head and finds the girl's face reappearing in his mind again. _Sam, Sam, Sam. God, if Carly tells her…_

He and Sam had been sitting outside of Ridgeway, talking nonsensically about Freddie's Calculus worries, and then something happened. Something minor, but when it came to Sam, even the littlest things mattered. That was what he had learned long ago from her, before the dating and whatnot, when she smiled briefly, gently at him. Sam leaned towards him and patted his cheek clumsily, smirking as she did so.

"There now, Benson, I'm sure Calculus won't be _that _much of a challenge." And then she stood up and skipped away, chuckling to herself.

He was not sure what it was, but it had triggered that thing within him that only Sam could touch. That feeling, that want, that desire, that need…

Freddie had been painfully aware that his and Sam's breakup had nothing to quell his feelings, but up until this point he had done nothing to appease them. Locked them up and buried them deep, deep, deep in the ground, he had told himself. There just seemed to be no point in trying. He might as well enjoy the moments they could share, without the pressure of an actual relationship.

But then he admitted it to himself, right then and there. He missed it.

It was all in her touch, her smell.

So, as he walked into the hallway of the high school and chatted absently with Carly (something about burglaries and garbage dumpsters, but he wasn't focused) his mind wandered.

Hoping was scary. But he was almost positive Sam felt the same way. And the words formed on his tongue, and he was then blurting, "Is it too late for you to love me?" picturing her eyes glimmering with the same trust that was in his. He could get it all back…

And the hole that he and Sam had been digging since, well, ever, grew even larger.

There, in the moldy basement of the school, when Carly had trotted away still puzzled by Freddie's out of the blue question and Gibby had turned his attention to the stove, he said lightly, "I'll follow Carly," hoping he would be able to explain his slipup earlier to her. Carly was incapable of keeping secrets, but a somewhat dimwitted part of him believed she could keep this one, if only because it affected her two best friends, and she certainly wanted the best for them. So yes, he wanted to follow.

"Wait." Sam stopped him. "Do you have a little Carly crush?"

And Freddie, naïvely thinking she was joking (they both knew Carly was only his best friend, never could be anything more) smiled at her almost teasingly, longing to poke her in the stomach and say, "You jealous, Puckett? 'Cause you have no reason to be." But he couldn't, and wouldn't. His head was confused, and he was going to miss the A.V. club meeting scheduled for lunch. And he didn't understand this. He just wanted to grab Sam and confess his love. So he smiled, because smiles help hide brokenness.

And Sam, who took the smile in a different way, made a face and said lightly, "Go on, then."

So Freddie climbed up the stairs, and the smile slipped into a frown as he realized what he had said. "Oh, God, Sam…"

Sam remained in the basement, staring at the checked floor, trying to understand. _He smiled…that means he meant it. Oh my God, after all this. I knew it, I knew it, he couldn't truly love me. But why Carly? And why now? I knew it, I knew it. No, no, no. His face looks the way it did when he told me he loved me._

She felt Gibby's presence behind her and she snapped, "Too close," and continued to wonder at Freddie's strange actions.

_Glad to see 'I love you's' mean something._

For some odd reason, she turned to Gibby for comfort. Carly was a little too close to the whole situation to provide any real comfort, and Gibby was funny enough and also appreciated profiting from underhanded means. He was as opposite of Freddie as you could get, and he made her tater tots and nodded appreciatively as she verbally destroyed Freddie in very creative ways.

"Gib, I don't get it," she said one morning, when they were preparing the highly successful Gibby's for the day's work.

"Get what?"

"Freddie. I mean, he says he has a crush on Carly, but he doesn't act it. At all. He's driving me nuts, the stupid nub." She slammed a pepper shaker on the table to emphasize her anger. Sam hated the fact that, of all people, she was being forced to confess her feelings to Gibby. Carly was fine, and Freddie had even seen her cry a couple of times. But not Gibby. No. The juvenile part of her rebelled against it, recalling a shirtless freak.

"Maybe he doesn't."

"Gibby, your job here isn't to act positive. It's to agree with me and call him a dish rag for playing me and Carly like that. Can you do that?"

"Fine. Freddie's, like, a total dish rag, right girl?" Gibby spoke the latter sentence in a valley girl voice, pretending to flip his hair.

"Shut up."

"Look, just talk to him about it. I thought you guys were friends."

"Well, I guess we are, but it's so awkward now. Like when my Cousin Chaz attended our family reunion right after he got out of prison for stealing my mom's makeup case. And that is a crime. Have you seen her without makeup? Ugh." Sam shuddered in horror.

"I think you're being difficult."

"I think I'm about to stuff hot meat down your pants."

Freddie, for his part, tried to spend time around Carly, just as a weird experiment of sorts to see if being around her really did anything to him. It did not. At all. She was still the quirky girl who tripped too often for her own good and made the most disgusting lemonade on the planet. Being trapped behind the counter with her and Spencer for three hours did not change that at all.

He and Sam still did not talk. Of course, he wanted to broach the topic with her, but there was no easy way. _I'm being a coward, _he thought, but it was not enough to make him explain his stupid, misguided actions to Sam.

Asking Carly if there was any way for her to love him was forgivable, because his thoughts had been floating absently, but telling Sam he had a crush was not. Maybe he had thought attempting to make her jealous was a good idea, or maybe his head had been so confused that he actually did think there was something between him and Carly. But he was wrong; the look on Sam's face of absolute betrayal had proved it. Perfidy!

He had meant 'I love you.' Those three words still applied to him and Sam, too. He just needed to prove it to her.

Eventually, Carly cracked. She wanted an explanation out of Freddie; it had been a week since his "Will you love me again" slip, and she needed to figure out whatever it was that was going through the crazy boy's head so she could make it stop. Sam was her best friend, and there was no way Carly would do anything to jeopardize their relationship. Carly sighed to herself as she steeled herself for the undoubtedly awkward conversation. She thought they had gotten past this desperate Freddie stage. Shows how much she knew.

"Freddie, sit," she said as he entered her apartment, punctual as ever. "There's something that I want to say, and I am only going to say it once, so you better listen. Okay?"

Freddie nodded and tried to maintain his composure. He had a hunch about what this was, and he really did not want to discuss it. His head was still a jumble and inviting anyone in there (especially Carly!) was not particularly advisable at the moment. "Okay. I will." He stared at the coffee table to avoid her sharp gaze.

"I don't love you. And you don't love me. You love Sam. And Sam loves you. And that's how it's going to go. Understand?" said Carly bluntly. It was easiest to lay out the terms in the simplest conditions. It may seem silly, but it was all true. Freddie and Sam did love each other, and they could be happy if they could quit being stupid.

Freddie sighed. "I know. I don't love you." He sank onto the couch slowly, recalling all of the things that had happened right here in this apartment. He and Sam had fought, laughed, and kissed, all within the eight hundred square feet or so of this.

"And you love Sam, right?" There was a note of desperation in Carly's voice as she sat next to him, her hand resting lightly on his shoulder.

"I guess."

"I guess? That's not a very reassuring answer."

"I mean, I absolutely do, but…I don't know…things have just crumpled between us. You know what I mean, don't you? Can't you feel it? The…the awkwardness, the hurt… it just makes it all seem so messed up. I never thought things would happen like this. Sam's been hurt so much already… You can even feel it right now, can't you?"

"I can. Oh, Freddie." And Carly rested her head on his shoulder, staring blankly at the wall. "I never thought it would be like this when we were thirteen and just trying to do a web show without killing each other. We're growing up, aren't we?"

"I know…I do love her, Carly."

Gibby sat close but not too close to Sam in the booth. She seemed to be in a brooding mood despite the triumph of keeping Gibby's, and it was wise to give her space at times like that. "Sam, you loved Freddie, didn't you?"

"Yeah," she whispered, trying to keep her voice gruff. She was not supposed to tell things like this to Gibby. Gibby was not someone to be spoken to. But here she was, anyways.

"You should do something. I talked to Carly, there's no way he has a crush on her. Just try something, you guys are screwing up our whole group dynamic thing-y."

Sam found her head slowly falling against Gibby's shoulder, and for some odd reason, she allowed it. Things were different now, he was her friend and she needed him. "I do love him, Gibby."

**Well, I'm not sure if this was a very coherent story, I just really, really needed to write it. iOwn A Restaurant confused me, but it also made it clearer than ever that Seddie is endgame, even if Creddie does get to have some fun now. I know Freddie's actions don't make much sense, but I'm certain they'll eventually be explained to the audience. I have complete trust in Dan Schneider, and look forward to that journey.**

**Nonetheless, I wanted to get inside Freddie's head a little bit, and this is my personal theory on what happened in this episode. I don't know if it's correct in the slightest, but right now it's my head canon. Please leave a review and let me know what you think! Stay optimistic, Seddiers, because just as this story says, they DO love each other, and that does matter! Seddie is endgame! :)**


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